Introduction to nuclear reactor kinetics

This introduction to reactor kinetics is targeted to those following a specialized course of study in nuclear engineering or those interested in the way fission reactors work. While no knowledge of nuclear physics is necessary for the understanding of the material, mathematical methods covered in the first years of university are a prerequisite. The text started out as a means of documenting a graduate course in reactor kinetics offered at the Nuclear Engineering Institute of the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, Canada. This book should allow the reader to understand kinetics sufficiently to predict the behaviour of a reactor subjected to various perturbations and to perform more detailed calculations. It can serve to prepare a course on reactor simulation and operation, where reactor-control systems and algorithms are studied in greater detail. The book covers only one aspect of reactor physics. Detailed study of the interaction between neutrons and nuclei and calculation of the homogenized cross sections that characterize lattice cells are important reactor-physics aspects that are not treated in any detail here. (author)